Cho Chang and the Goblet of Fire
by dungeonwonk
Summary: An AU approach to the Triwizard Tournament. What happens when both Hogwarts champions disappear and only one returns? When Cho tries to uncover the truth and meets unlikely resistance?
1. Chapter 1

Cho Chang and the Goblet of Fire: An Alternate Fanfic

Cho Chang and the Goblet of Fire: An Alternate Fanfic

By monkeymouse

Based on writings by JK Rowling

Part One: 24 June, 1995

xxx

"Kill the spare."

Harry Potter was kneeling on the ground, his head feeling as if it were about to burst open from pain. He couldn't fix on anything but Cedric's shoes, and even that much attention away from the pain took an effort.

He thought he sensed a wand being drawn by the robed figure they'd met in the churchyard. He heard a high voice screeching: "Avada--"

"WAIT!"

This voice, the one he'd heard before, was also high-pitched, but oddly thin, as if spoken by someone who couldn't draw breath. He'd heard it before--

He felt himself being pulled upright, but not by any human hands. He was Spelled to his feet, his face pressed to a headstone in the ruined old churchyard. He also felt ropes binding him to the spot--him and Cedric Diggory, who at least was struggling to get loose.

"Save your strength, laddie," came the thin, high voice, "and don't give me any resistance. I merely want to know what brought you here. I had made quite certain that Harry Potter, and only Harry Potter, would win the Third Task, and yet here you are. Look at you: the fair-haired, square-jawed Saxon mother's son. I am curious: what sort of a lad would do such a thing?"

The pain in Harry's head began to ease a bit. He turned his head to look at Cedric, whose eyes had begun to glaze over. "Cedric, don't! Don't let him--"

The pain returned, stronger than ever. Harry felt as if he was going to vomit up all the food he'd ever eaten.

"Ah, yes; a Hufflepuff," the thin voice said. "Your House has always had its reputation for, shall we say, earnestness without real effect. The Diggory family? Certainly Pureblood enough, but somehow your parents never saw fit to join me. A pity. They insisted on following the Ministry's lead, although Merlin knows it never did much for them. Is that your girl, then?"

Now, despite the pain, Harry started to struggle; he knew that this thing was sorting through Cedric's thoughts and memories about Cho Chang. Cedric had asked her to the Yule Ball; Cedric had rescued her from the bottom of the lake in the Second Task; the two of them had been almost inseparable since Christmas, and it tore at Harry's heart. The first girl, the only girl, he had ever been in love with, and Cedric-- He didn't want to resent Cedric, but at times he couldn't stop himself.

"A pretty enough little thing," the voice was saying; "she'll just have to get on without you.

"And now for the star of the evening," the voice continued, moving closer to Harry. "The Boy Who Lived; that's what they call you, isn't it? Don't worry, Potter; I have to keep you alive, at least long enough to come back into the world in a new and healthy body. Better than the one you deprived me of thirteen Halloweens ago."

Harry felt sick, and grew sicker when he turned his head toward the voice. A wizard was holding a bundle of rags; the voice came from the bundle. But Harry knew the face of the wizard holding the bundle: knew it all too well.

Peter Pettigrew. The wizard who had betrayed his parents to Voldemort and brought about their deaths. Before he could say anything, Harry felt and tasted a foul rag of black cloth being shoved into his mouth.

xxx

Cho wasn't the only person in the audience up in the Quidditch stadium stands, looking down into the maze, who was completely baffled. This shouldn't be happening, she kept telling herself; this isn't supposed to be happening.

Nobody else seemed to know anything, either. Once Potter and Diggory touched the Cup and they both disappeared, she understood one thing clearly enough: the cup was a Portkey. It had behaved like one, anyway, and sent the two Hogwarts Champions off--but where?

Dumbledore and McGonagall, Flitwick and Hagrid, and Mad-Eye Moody and even Snape were all dashing about the perimeter of the maze, trying to find out what had happened. But nobody was telling the audience anything, not even Ludo Bagman, the apparent master of ceremonies.

Cho tried to keep down her rising sense of panic. Not both of them, she kept saying to herself; don't let me lose them both at once.

xxx

Death Eaters had been arriving since the unholy thing that had been placed in the cauldron--along with a bone from the grave of Voldemort's Muggle father, Tom Riddle, with the severed arm of Peter Pettigrew, and with blood from the wounded leg of Harry Potter--emerged as Lord Voldemort. The Dark Lord stretched himself, like a cat after a nap, getting used to having a body again, before turning to Harry.

"The moment has come ... to pay back in kind the boy who stopped my rise to power." He stood before Harry, whose leg was throbbing dully now but still could not support his weight.

"What about it, boy?" Voldemort whispered an inch from Harry's face. "Where are your last thoughts now? With your parents, both dead in a noble but futile gesture? With that fool Dumbledore? Or do you have some little girlfriend of your own?"

Harry couldn't help it; his mind jumped back to images of Cho Chang. The first time he ever saw her, over a year ago on the Quidditch pitch ... the thrill of touching her fingertips with his own as she handed back his quill ... the sight of her tied to the underwater statue in the Second Task ... the vision of her attending the Yule Ball--on Cedric's arm ...

Harry suddenly realized that Voldemort had stopped talking; instead, he seemed to be listening to Harry's thoughts. There was no other way to put it: with each image of Cho in his mind, Voldemort reacted to it. Finally, Harry tried to think of something else, anything else--but it was too late. Voldemort was laughing: a cold, dry, joyless laugh.

"Priceless," the Dark Lord said as he paced around the tombstone where Harry was securely tied. "Absolutely priceless."

"What are you going to do to him?"

Voldemort turned in amazement. Cedric Diggory, largely ignored once he too had been tied to a monument, had worked the gag out of his mouth.

"Very resourceful, boy, but you'll get no more freedom than that. Wormtail."

Pettigrew dashed forward, his new metallic arm shining in the moonlight, to put the gag back in Cedric's mouth. Before he could do so, Cedric managed to shout, "What are you doing to him?!"

"You needn't be so concerned, boy," Voldemort said smoothly as Cedric was being gagged again. "I'm only going to give Harry Potter exactly what he wants..."

xxx

The time ticked away. Forty minutes since the Hogwarts Champions had disappeared. Teachers were still scuttling around and into the maze; wizards--Cho assumed that they were from the Ministry--showed up, examining, offering opinions. Professor Moody circled the maze, only stopping once to hear from one of the Ministry wizards as he whispered something in his ear. Had they found the boys? What was happening??

With a flash and a loud crack, the Goblet of Fire suddenly reappeared. Clutching it was Cedric Diggory, who immediately dropped to his knees, then fainted dead away.

There was no sign of Harry Potter.

Cedric's sudden appearance unleashed a kind of madness. Everyone started screaming, or running, or doing both. Professor Snape was trying to hold back Cedric's parents, Amos and Celia Diggory, as they pushed through the mob toward their son. Cedric, meanwhile, had been Locomotored out of the stadium.

Cho Chang was one of the shortest witches in her Year, and couldn't fight against the mob of panicked spectators. But she was not without resources. She drew her wand.

"Accio Comet!"

Taking a page from what Harry Potter had done in the First Task, she'd Summoned her Quidditch broom. She quickly mounted it and flew above the heads of the spectators--then had to fly higher as scores of owls began carrying messages to and from Hogwarts, telling the news of what had happened, offering theories of what might have happened.

Cho wasn't interested in what they had to say. She went straight to the source.

She flew in the window of her dormitory room in Ravenclaw, left her broom on her bed, and dashed downstairs to the hospital wing. Others were crowding the corridors already, but here, unlike in the stadium, her diminutive size worked to her advantage. She was able to slip along walls and between people until she got to the heavy wooden doors of the hospital wing. They were closed; she pounded on them with both fists.

"CEDRIC!"

No sooner had she started pounding than the door opened, and Madame Sprout, the Head of Hufflepuff House, stepped into the corridor. Everyone started shouting questions at her; she raised her hands and called for silence.

"Listen to me please! I've been sent with a message from Madame Pomfrey and the Headmaster!" She had to repeat this two or three times, but gradually the crowd quieted down.

"Cedric Diggory is still unconscious, but apart from that he seems unharmed. We have no way of knowing where he's been, nor what, if anything, happened to Harry Potter, until he is awake." Pomfrey was interrupted by a high-pitched little sob. Cho turned to see; it was Ginny Weasley, sobbing into the shoulder of Hermione Granger, whose eyes also shone with tears. Ginny's three brothers stood around her like a military guard.

Madam Pomfrey began again, her voice a bit less steady than before. "An announcement will be made to the school the instant we've learned anything. In the meanwhile, there is nothing to learn. The Headmaster hopes that none of you will spend time fretting yourselves over guesses and wild rumours. As hard as it may be, he asks you to have patience, so that wizards in authority can solve this problem. Now, everyone, please go back to your Houses. And please clear a path so that Cedric's parents can come in."

The crowd parted for the two. Cho was standing next to the door, and didn't move an inch as Amos and Celia Diggory made their way through the mass of students to the hospital wing. Cho had only just met Cedric's parents that day for the first time, and they seemed not to know what to make of Cho, nor of their son's attraction to her. Celia Diggory's eyes were still red from crying, although her face showed relief more than any other emotion; Amos Diggory, his hands on his wife's shoulders, turned his head briefly to glare at Cho, as if she were somehow the cause of all this, before they were ushered inside the hospital wing and the door slammed shut.

The mob began to thin out as students went back to their Houses, but about half of the students stayed in front of the door, as if it might tell them something else. Cho was one of those students. She looked at the door, reached up, and touched the wood of the door with both hands. Then she slowly sank to her knees on the cold stone floor, her hands still on the door, and began to cry.

Her friend and dorm-mate Marietta Edgecombe, who was also still there, rushed forward to help Cho to her feet. Professor Flitwick was also there, and he took one of Cho's hands in his own. "You mustn't worry, my dear," the tiny professor said; "the Ministry is doing everything it can. And at least Mister Diggory seems to be well."

But Cho couldn't explain the emotions churning in her like the contents of a boiling cauldron. She'd had the great joy of falling in love--with Harry Potter. She'd seen him arrive at Hogwarts: the legendary Harry Potter, the infant who stopped the death and destruction caused by Voldemort and his Death Eaters, only to vanish into obscurity for a decade. Cho, who aspired to be a Seeker herself, watched as Harry was almost immediately placed on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, demonstrating very powerful talent, if still a bit raw. Almost a year earlier was the first time they'd played Quidditch against each other. But he was in a different House, and a different Year, and--in spite of the legends that had grown up around him--seemed to be just as shy about approaching girls as Cho was about approaching him. She would see him in passing in the corridors, but do no more than wave to him. It wasn't until just before the First Task that they had actually blundered into a conversation, but it was at least a start, and Cho hoped that it would lead to Harry asking her to the Yule Ball...

but Cedric Diggory had asked first. And, from the moment she found herself in his arms on the dance floor, the tall and handsome Hufflepuff Seeker filled her thoughts. They spent almost every spare moment together in the six months between the Ball and the Third Task, and Cho had learned the intoxicating confusion of a kiss from Cedric...

even as a tiny corner of her heart also carried her love for Harry. They say one never forgets one's first love; certainly, Cho could not. Cho did not.

And, like Amos Diggory, Cho blamed herself for whatever was happening. Somehow, in some way nobody could know, this had happened because (whether she could help it or not) she loved two boys at once, and somehow both boys and Cho were being punished for it.

xxx

continued in part 2: 25 June, 1995


	2. Chapter 2

Cho Chang and the Goblet of Fire: An Alternate Fanfic

By monkeymouse

Based on writings by JK Rowling

Part Two: 25 June, 1995

xxx

Cho spent a very fitful night, unable to sleep for more than a few minutes at a time, before waking and turning the problem over in her mind again and again. Where was Harry? What had happened to Cedric? How could the Ministry have let the Tournament go so horribly wrong?

As soon as there was enough light in the east to see by, she was out of her dormitory in Ravenclaw and knocking on the door to the hospital wing. She waited, then tried the door; it was locked. She knocked again. This time, Madam Pomfrey opened the door just a crack.

"Miss Chang," she sighed, "I understand you're anxious about Mister Diggory, but not letting him sleep isn't going to help. There's nothing new to tell you in any event. If you'll come back after breakfast, maybe we'll all feel…"

Cho spun angrily on her heel and briskly walked down the corridor. Nobody was in the corridor, and anyone who saw her would have described her as seething. In her frustration, she actually punched at a suit of armour.

"Hey, watch that!" the armour complained.

Cho muttered, "Sorry," and kept walking toward the Great Hall, hardly seeing where she was. It was maddening. In the six months she had known Cedric, the six months they'd been a couple, she could count on one hand the number of days they hadn't been with each other. Even studying for her O.W.L.s, even taking the O.W.L.s, hadn't gotten in the way. But the Cedric she knew, the Cedric she loved, and who she thought loved her, would certainly have asked to see her, to explain to her about whatever had happened after he and Harry had disappeared. This was all wrong. Why didn't he want to see her?

She was so wrapped up in this situation that she almost let Amos and Celia Diggory walk right past her, headed for the hospital wing. They either didn't remember her, having been introduced by Cedric yesterday, or they too had Cedric on their minds. As it is, Cho stopped in the corridor, let the Diggorys walk a few paces past her, then turned and followed after them.

Pride be damned, she thought. If Pomfrey won't let me in there in my own right, I'll trail along behind them and see what happens.

She walked along behind Cedric's worried mother and angry-looking father. The mother; she'd be the one to approach. Amos Diggory looked as if he wanted to take a bite out of the suit of armour Cho had punched earlier; as they passed it, Cho could swear she saw the armour flinch at Amos.

Amos strode up to the door, pounding on it with his fist as if he meant to break through it. His wife hung a few paces back; Cho decided that this was her moment. "Pardon, Missus Diggory," she said, barely above a whisper, "but Cedric introduced us yesterday. I'm…"

Before she could even get her name out, the door to the hospital wing opened, and Celia Diggory turned away to focus on Madam Pomfrey. At first she looked as if she was going to bark at Amos Diggory, but her face softened a bit. Just a bit.

"Amos, I don't blame you for what you must be going through," Pomfrey began.

"How nice of you," he snapped back. "Why didn't we stay in Hogwarts instead of that barnyard Rosmerta calls an inn?!"

"Headmaster's orders. Until we know what happened, we have to assume your son was attacked, and you being a Ministry official were considered safer away from the castle."

"This isn't about my safety. Now, stand aside!" Without waiting, he shoved his way into the wing, with his wife right behind him. A second later, while the door was still open a crack, Cho slipped in.

She was familiar with the hospital wing, having sustained a number of Quidditch injuries over the years. The ward seemed to be empty except for a bed at the other end of the room, around which Pomfrey had already put up curtains. Cho ducked into Pomfrey's office next to the door, leaving the office door ajar. At least she could hear what was going on, if not see it.

"I'm sorry, Cedric," Pomfrey was saying, "but I couldn't keep them out."

"It's all right," Cho heard the familiar voice of Cedric, sounding not sleepy or tired but exhausted. "I heard the commotion, and figured it was either a herd of hippogriffs or my old man." Cedric paused a moment, then said, "Are you both all right?"

Celia started to speak: "It's you everyone is worried about."

"NO!" Cho almost cried out herself when she heard Cedric's shout. He sounded terrified; there was no other word for it. "Sorry, mum," he said after a minute's silence, "but I guess my nerves are still a bit of a wreck after last night."

"You'd better not let anyone hear you talk like that," Amos interrupted. "You're just about to get out of school, and as the TriWizard Champion to boot. Any position you want at the Ministry would be yours for the asking. If you give them reason to think you're not up to scratch…"

"Amos, stop that." Cho realized that Cedric's parents had the kind of marriage in which Celia didn't have to shout at her husband to get him to see reason.

Pomfrey spoke next: "I'm sure Professor Dumbledore will be down to speak with you soon. Is there anything you can tell us in the meantime? About last night."

Cedric didn't speak for a minute; when he did, his voice was soft and husky, in a way Cho had never heard it before. "It's all a blur, I'm afraid."

"Do you know where Mister Potter is?"

Cedric mumbled something that Cho couldn't make out.

"Could you say that again, please? Louder?"

"I DON'T KNOW WHERE HARRY POTTER IS ANYMORE, YOU STUPID OLD COW! IS THIS LOUD ENOUGH FOR YOU?!"

Celia sounded as if she was in tears, "Madam Pomfrey, is there anything…"

"As I told you before, he needs to rest. No distractions and no excitement, until we get to the bottom of this. Will the two of you please go home? I'll Floo you if he takes any kind of a turn."

"I'll go home by way of Minister Fudge's office," Amos snarled as he strode down the length of the ward, again leaving his wife and Madam Pomfrey to try to catch up. "I need some answers about who's running this school." Cho stayed watching in Pomfrey's office, realizing that she could be seen but unable to hide.

As Amos Diggory reached for the door, it was opened from the outside by Albus Dumbledore.

"Albus, you're just the man I want to see," Amos began.

"Yes, I imagine so," the headmaster replied, "but right now your son is the man I want to see. Please give me one minute alone with him."

"He's very excitable just now, headmaster," Madam Pomfrey said. "Talking about the tournament might set him off."

"Then I won't do any talking. Wait for me outside, please."

The Diggorys left, reluctantly. Dumbledore strode down to the curtained-off bed with Cedric Diggory in it, with Madam Pomfrey at his elbow. They seemed not to have seen Cho, who breathed a very careful sigh of relief. She closed the door to about halfway, so she could still hear but was less likely to be seen. Cho strained her ears but, true to his word, Dumbledore didn't say anything; after a minute at Cedric's bedside, he left the wing.

As he did, Cho heard Cedric speak: "Madam Pomfrey?"

"Yes?"

"I don't want any visitors, not yet."

"Well, that won't be easy. I expect all of Hufflepuff and half the students from the other Houses will be down in short order. In fact, you had a visitor this morning early, even before your parents showed up."

"Who was it?"

"Your Miss Chang."

There was a pause. "Madam Pomfrey, swear to me that you won't let Cho in to see me."

"Personally, I think she might be a bit of a pick-me-up…"

"Swear it!"

After a pause, a very confused sounding Madam Pomfrey said, "Very well, Mister Diggory. I will not let her in."

"Tell her I'm unstable; tell her whatever you like. I just can't see her now; not like this. Later."

Pomfrey nodded and turned back toward her office. As she walked the length of the ward, she thought she saw the main door closing by itself.

xxx

Cho skipped breakfast altogether. Instead she went to the Quidditch stadium. A number of Aurors were still guarding the maze, or looking for clues as to whatever happened. Cho stood a minute watching one witch who looked young enough to have just gotten out of Hogwarts herself. She had a pleasant smile and a head of short-cropped hair the color of violets. Unfortunately, she seemed to catch her toe on the roots of one of the gigantic shrubs that made up the maze, lost her balance and fell on her face.

"Pick 'em up, Dora," said a round wizard in seedy-looking robes. "You want them to take you seriously, don't yeh?"

Cho went on to Madam Hooch's office, where the school brooms had been relocated for the duration of the Tournament. She found her Comet Two-Sixty after about five minutes' searching; not that she could confuse it with other brooms, but there were literally hundreds to sort through. She wasn't sure where to fly, but she was sure of one thing:

she had to fly.

She took the broom up to the Astronomy Tower and circled it for a few minutes, not really noticing anything about the castle below. She was trying to sort out the biggest mystery she had ever been confronted with, a mystery that apparently also had a dozen Aurors and the Hogwarts faculty trying to solve it.

They, however, didn't have as much invested in this mystery as she did. What had happened to Cedric Diggory? What had happened to the boy she loved, the boy who was going to ask her after the Tournament—win or lose—to marry him? Wherever he and Harry Potter had gone for that lost hour, Harry was still nowhere to be found, and Cedric was definitely not his old self. His nerves were broken, maybe shattered beyond repair.

No; she wouldn't admit to that. Even if he's a mental case for the rest of his life, even if it means she would be his nurse as well as his wife, Cedric was still here. Cedric was still alive. They still had a chance at a life together.

But none of this was answering the question: what had happened. She started to fly over the maze, and was just about to cross above it when her way was blocked by a shower of blue stars.

"Hey, you! Get out of that!" One of the Aurors was shouting at her. "The Ministry has declared this maze a danger zone. Nobody goes in, near, over or under without approval for the duration."

For a minute, Cho thought about putting this wizard's words to the test: flying to the center of the maze at high speed, to see for herself what might have happened. But then, she realized that the wizard had both a broom and a wand, and she'd left her wand in her dormitory room.

I'll never make that mistake again, she told herself, as she started flying around the edge of the maze. She hoped that there was a weak spot, where she could slip in unnoticed. Unfortunately, there always seemed to be an Auror or two watching her. Finally, she gave up and went back to the castle. This time, though, she took her broom with her up to her dorm room. By then, it was time for lunch, and Cho was definitely feeling her missed breakfast.

xxx

After lunch, Cho went to the Ravenclaw Common Room; the weather outside was perfect, and she hoped to find a book that would let her rest in the sun, or under a tree, or on the great stone steps. As she had so many times in the last few months with Cedric…

Cedric again. There was no way around it: no book would ever present a puzzle more complex, or more vital, than the mystery in the hospital wing. Nothing left to do but try again.

She wanted to check the Great Hall, just to see if Madam Pomfrey was having lunch. I doubt it, Cho thought; if it were me, I'd have lunch delivered to the wing. Still, I have to try.

She went past the hospital wing, of course, and when she did she heard a loud and angry shouting match: two men yelling at each other in some foreign tongue. She could also hear Madam Pomfrey trying to calm things down, but the foreign argument kept on. After a minute, the door to the wing flew open, and Cho barely had time to hide around the corner as two men spilled out into the hall, still arguing: Durmstrang Champion Viktor Krum, and Durmstrang's Headmaster, Igor Karkaroff. They went down the hall, still arguing in Bulgarian. At that moment, Peeves, Hogwarts' resident poltergeist, squeezed through the gap under the door, wearing what looked like a white laboratory coat worn by Muggle doctors and carrying a sheaf of papers.

A second later, Pomfrey burst through the door. "Peeves! Bring that back!"

"Very interesting case, this," Peeves said in an affected upper class accent. Then he cackled as he floated down the corridor ahead of Pomfrey. "Patient just isn't himself these days. What a shame."

Cho realized that she might not have much time, so she waited until Peeves, with Pomfrey right behind him, turned a corner, then dashed into the wing. She closed the door and went right to Cedric's bed at the end of the wing.

Cho doubted that Cedric was asleep, what with the Bulgarians and the poltergeist. Sure enough, he was still in bed, looking pale and trembling like a scared rabbit.

"Don't be mad at Madam Pomfrey, Ced," Cho said, coming up beside Cedric's bed. "I had to sneak in. Nobody's saying anything and I couldn't stand not knowing." Cedric still trembled, holding the covers up to his eyes. She sat on the next bed. "Why haven't you said anything, or sent word you were alive? I've been going out of my mind."

Cedric brought the blanket down to his chin. He smiled weakly. "I know the feeling."

"If you don't want to talk about it, I understand, and you don't have to. But where's Harry? Can you at least say where Harry is?"

Cedric looked as if he was going to start sobbing. He covered his eyes with one hand and muttered the word, "Lost." After a minute's silence: "I'm sorry, Cho, but I can't talk about this right now. I just can't."

"Nobody's blaming you for anything, if that's what has you worried," Cho said, trying to sound soothing. She reached toward Cedric, who cowered away from her hand as if it were a tarantula. "Cedric, I'm, I'm sorry, but…"

They were interrupted by a stream of colorful cursing coming through the door from the corridor.

"Hide," Cedric whispered.

"Where?"

"Under the bed." Cho gave him a puzzled look; he smiled weakly back. "Last place they'd look, isn't it?"

Cho nodded, and crawled under just as the door flew open and she heard the last voice she wanted to hear: that of Severus Snape.

"Don't press your luck, Alastor," Snape was shouting. "Madam Pomfrey says he's in no shape to be interrogated."

"Don't tell me my job, Severus! Every moment is a memory, and every second means the lad is forgetting some important bit of information!" That was Professor Moody, this year's Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

"Your orders are clear, from the Ministry and from the Headmaster!"

"Stop pretending to love the rules so dearly. It must be driving you mad, isn't it; Lily's boy vanished into thin air, and you can't go chasing around for him because of those precious rules."

Cho couldn't see anything from under the bed, but it sounded as if Moody had said the one thing that would enrage Snape. "This is one promise that has nothing to do with the rules," Snape snarled. "You will never mention that name to me again, or it will cost you the other eye. Are we clear?"

"Very clear," Moody sneered. "I saw through you years ago. Just you go on the way you're going. You'll bring yourself down, and I won't have to do a thing about it."

There was a slam, then Moody's voice came faintly through the door. "You think you know security, Severus, and you can't even keep meddling little mice out of the wing."

Cho froze. She'd forgotten about Moody's weird eye. He must have been able to see her under the bed. She looked at the floor and saw Snape's robes approaching.

Suddenly Cedric croaked out: "Help … Help me."

Snape's pace quickened as he walked up to the bed.

"Get … Pomfrey. Can't … breathe," Cedric gasped.

Snape turned and almost ran out of the wing.

"Cho, get out," Cedric whispered.

Cho crawled out from under the bed. "Good thinking; thanks," she smiled.

"He'll be back any moment; get going! I'll talk to you tomorrow; promise."

"See you tomorrow, then." Cho smiled and ran out of the wing.

It wasn't until she was halfway to Ravenclaw that Cho stopped in her tracks. Hiding under the bed? Faking an attack to get her out? Cedric had a sense of humor but he was never a trickster; he was open and honest. He'd changed in a day's time; was that even possible, whatever he and Harry had endured in that missing hour? And why wouldn't he speak of Harry?

She'd learned something today: that much of what happened was still being hidden from her.

xxx

continued in part 3: 26 June, 1995


	3. Chapter 3

Cho Chang and the Goblet of Fire: An Alternate Fanfic

By monkeymouse

Based on writings by JK Rowling

Part Three: 26 June, 1995

xxx

It was late June; the days were as long as they could be. Cho, who hadn't had a good night's sleep since the Third Task, was up with the sun, threw on her robes and was down to the Common Room in a minute's time.

A boy from her year, Eddie Carmichael, was already down there. Like Cho, he had finished his O.W.L.s before the Third Task, and should have had no reason to be up before he had to be. Cho realized that Eddie must have slept in the Common Room and awoken just now.

His eyes were narrow slits of their former selves as he walked, very slowly, to the stairs leading up to the boys' dormitories. Rather than climb the stairs, though, he sat heavily down on the first step and turned himself so that his forehead was resting against the stone wall.

"Not feeling well, eh?" Cho asked.

Eddie didn't move. "No wonder you're a Ravenclaw," he muttered, his eyes closed.

"Should I send for Pomfrey?"

"This isn't anything I want the school to know about. A bunch of us have been trying to work up a spell that'll turn water to firewhiskey."

"Looks like it worked."

"Too well. Remind me never to use myself as a guinea-pig."

"I think you'll remember it for yourself," Cho smiled. She then went to the fireplace, took a pinch of Floo powder from the bowl on the mantelpiece, tossed it into the fire, and spoke in Mandarin Chinese.

The scene in the fireplace immediately changed to the hearth of the Chang household. At first, Cho couldn't see anything moving except the family cat, who acted as if Cho wasn't there (which, technically, she wasn't). After a minute, Cho's mother came into the room from the kitchen, wiping her hands with a towel.

"Ah, I thought I heard you. Is everything all right?"

"That's what I'm still trying to find out."

"Is this about your, erm, friend?" Cho's mother had yet to mention Cedric by name, and only referred to him as Cho's friend. Cho longed for her to at least call him "your young man;" at least that way she'd be admitting the state of things and letting Cho know that she accepted it.

"I saw him the other day," Cho said. "Whatever happened, it still has him terrified."

"And no word about the other boy?"

The other boy. Cho couldn't bear her mother when she was like this; pretending not to know the name of Harry Potter. She'd known since last year how Cho felt about Harry, and how Harry seemed to feel about Cho—until the Yule Ball. What had started out as a simple love-story, as straight as a wall, had now become all mixed up.

"No word here yet, mother."

"Strange. Nothing in the Prophet, either. The articles just get smaller and smaller. Do you think they already know something?" Mrs. Chang just let the question hang in the middle of the grate.

"Maybe I'll do some Auror work and find out," Cho said, as flippantly as she could—considering she meant it. "Give my love to daddy; I'll be home in about a week." With that, she signed off.

What had her mother said: nothing in the Prophet? Was the morning paper out already? She glanced over toward Eddie, but he'd already gone upstairs. She decided to go to the Great Hall and pretend to get breakfast; she wasn't a bit hungry, except to borrow someone's paper.

At this hour on a summer morning late in the term, even though breakfast was just starting, hardly anyone was there. Each of the four Houses, however, seemed to be represented by a knot of students, heads together, whispering; probably sharing rumours, Cho thought. I doubt there's anything to tell yet.

Just then, Cho saw one of the Hufflepuffs, Ernie Macmillan, enter the Great Hall. Since she and Cedric had started dating, she'd found herself on a first-name basis with some of the Hufflepuffs. Ernie, who seemed a bit of a "stuffed shirt" (his own words) at times, was simply nervous around people he thought had an "edge" on him. By now, though, he knew that Cho, unlike some other Ravenclaws, wouldn't try to lord her brains over his.

"Hello, Ernie," Cho called over to him.

"Ah, Cho; good morning."

"Have you seen Cedric yet?"

"Erm, not really. Tried to get in last night, but didn't get past the guard at the gate."

"Well, I hope he's doing better."

"Oh, yes, he seems to be." Ernie seemed to realize he'd said too much. "That is, erm," he stammered nervously, "from the little bit I could see by the door. But, well, you know old Pomfrey, eh? She'll have him right as dodgers any day now."

Like many basically good people, Ernie Macmillan was basically a very bad liar. Cho could tell that he knew more but was not telling her. She was wondering whether to challenge him on it, but was interrupted by owls flying in with mail and the morning copy of the Prophet. With a quick good-bye to Ernie, she went over to the Ravenclaw table.

She sat down across from a younger student who'd gotten a copy of the newspaper, helped herself to a little food and sat, not eating it, waiting to borrow the paper. The other student, a young, lanky boy who Cho knew only as Gregory, looked for a minute, said something to himself about "Tutshill's getting the year off to a good start," and handed the paper across to Cho.

"Thanks," she said; "I'll just be a minute."

"Don't worry about it," Gregory smiled back at her; "I just read it for the Quidditch scores. Besides, we've all got different interests."

I wonder if he knows, Cho thought; then she checked herself. He probably does know; he's a Ravenclaw, after all. She paged through the Prophet twice, but found what she was afraid she'd find: nothing. Absolutely nothing. Harry Potter was missing, and the Hogwarts Champion had gone missing for an hour and come back frightened half to death, and nobody was saying anything about it.

Cho was now too outraged to even pretend to eat. After a glance at the head table, noting that Madam Pomfrey was up there eating breakfast, she left the Great Hall, then dashed to the hospital wing.

This morning the door was unguarded. Cho realized why as soon as she stepped into the wing: it was empty. Cedric was gone.

Cho was getting madder by the minute. Hadn't Pomfrey said just two nights ago that Hogwarts would make an announcement if they learned anything? Well, apparently they learned that Cedric was well enough to go somewhere, but said nothing about it. What was their promise worth now?

"What are you doing there, girl?"

Mad-Eye Moody had just come into the wing. He had been this year's Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher; he had prepared Cho, and the other students of her year, for their O.W.L.s; normally she would have shown him the proper respect. Not now.

"Where is he?"

"Well, look at you. Exams are in the past and you think you know it all, hey?" As he had so often, Moody tried to intimidate Cho with his sheer striking presence, but Cho was having none of it.

"Cedric is either gone back to Hufflepuff or home to his parents, but he's clearly not here. Harry Potter is still missing, and you're standing about in the one building where we know he's not!"

When Cho said this, a curious expression came over Mad-Eye Moody. He seemed to look through her with his artificial eye; Cho reminded herself that he'd done this before, told herself she was used to it.

"Girl, there's one thing you need to remember," Moody said at length. "A true Auror is the first to admit what he doesn't know. The Ministry is trying to determine what became of Master Potter. I'll leave you to try to find out where Master Diggory is, but I warn you: it's as tough a puzzle to crack as any he dealt with in the Tournament. So get out of here and leave me alone to figure everything out; getting in my way will only slow things down."

She was clearly being dismissed. Cho left the wing, trying to hang onto as much dignity as she could.

She turned things over and over in her mind. Cedric had promised to see her after the Third Task, and seemed to have forgotten that promise. The Hogwarts Champion, Head Boy, as common-sensical a wizard as one would ever meet, seemed to have some sort of a breakdown, avoiding people—avoiding Cho, who he said he loved. Something during that missing hour had changed him, but what? And how? And is it still out there?

As she walked back to Ravenclaw, she accidentally walked through Moaning Myrtle without even noticing. "Sorry, Myrtle," she said over her shoulder.

Myrtle said nothing.

This in itself was as big a mystery as anything else. Myrtle, who had been killed in the castle some seventy years ago, was as fond of bemoaning her lot in life as she was moaning about her afterlife. That she should say nothing-- Cho took a guess; "Do you know anything about Cedric?"

"I expect none of us knows anything, least of all Cedric himself."

"You've seen him, then? Tell me!"

"He was in the Prefects' Bath an hour ago. I thought it would be my last chance with him, but he was no fun at all. He didn't drop a stitch of clothing. He just sat on the bench, kept taking a picture of you out of his pocket, looking at it, and whimpering. That's the only word for it: he was whimpering like a beaten pup. Some Champion he turned out to be."

"Did you speak to him at all?"

"That's the really funny part of all this. The closer I got to him, the more his body started to, well, lose focus. It's as if it was trying to turn into something else. It was the strangest thing I've ever seen, and I didn't like it. Your Cedric seems to be mixed up in something very Dark; mark my words."

"Never!" Cho said, although more out of reflex.

Myrtle shrugged her shoulders and floated away.

Cho went back to the Ravenclaw Common Room, and spent the rest of the day turning everything over and over in her mind, but couldn't find any kind of an answer.

xxx

continued in part 4: 27 June, 1995


	4. Chapter 4

Cho Chang and the Goblet of Fire: An Alternate Fanfic

By monkeymouse

Based on writings by JK Rowling

Part Four: 27 June, 1995

xxx

Cho sat at her writing desk when she got up the next morning, and started listing everything she knew about Cedric's condition after the Third Task; that turned out to be precious little, and she couldn't get hold of the one person who would know best.

She didn't know where to turn now. Cedric's behavior was stranger than she'd ever known, yet he was no longer in the hospital wing. Had he tricked them into releasing him before he was ready? And if he was whole again, why hadn't he come to see her? Had something happened to him during that missing hour? And what had happened to Harry?

By the time she tossed the parchment aside and gave it up, breakfast was well under way. She went down, and saw the Patil twins in a corner of the Great Hall, discussing something quietly. Before she could reach them, however, one of the Patils walked briskly over to Cho. Because of the blue trim to her robes, Cho knew it was Padma, who was also in Ravenclaw.

"Cho, I was just going to come looking for you. Can you help us out?"

"With what?"

"With Cedric," Padma said, her voice dropping. "Something is very wrong with him. Ced was down here late last night for dinner, and then tried to get into Gryffindor. He actually got past the entrance, according to Parvati, and got as far as the Common Room until he got chased out. They shouldn't have let him out of the hospital wing, Cho," Padma sighed. "And now he'll be taking all his meals in Hufflepuff, I'm told. Apparently he worked out some sort of arrangement with a house-elf to bring food to him. Justin Finch-Fletchley called to Cedric just now in the corridor, asking some question or other; at first he didn't respond, looked at him as if he were a stranger, then picked up on Justin's question as if nothing happened. His nerves are still shot, I'm sorry to say."

Cho thanked Padma for the information, then ran out of the Great Hall. This was the limit; if no one else was going to act, she had to do something, and fast. But what? She went to the hospital wing, which was empty, as she knew it would be. So he was hiding out in Hufflepuff, and Cho feared, without even knowing why, that her asking Ced directly to come out and meet her would be met by some sort of excuse. What could possibly entice him out of Hufflepuff?

In that second, Cho had the answer.

xxx

There were only a few Aurors left guarding the maze. Perhaps they'd already found everything they needed to find, or could find, to explain what had happened. They didn't pay much attention to Cho as she made her way to Madam Hooch's office.

There were only a few members of the faculty whom Cedric would respond to without question, including the Head of Hufflepuff House, Madam Sprout, and Madam Hooch. She taught flying and was head of all things Quidditch at Hogwarts. Cedric's years as Captain of the team and Seeker was one thing he had in common with Cho. She had never tried to play a trick on Cedric or abuse her own dealings with Madam Hooch, until now.

Once in Hooch's office, Cho got a piece of parchment and took a QuickQuill from the holder on the desk. She touched the point of the quill to the parchment; it stood upright on its own. Cho knew that there was a spell that would cause her voice to sound like Hooch's, but she didn't know it and hadn't stopped to look it up; this couldn't wait.

"Dear Cedric," she started.

Cho looked at the parchment, and breathed a sigh of relief; the quill was writing in Hooch's hand. She went on:

"I am writing to congratulate you on becoming the Tri-Wizard Tournament Champion. Although I wish I could have seen you playing Quidditch in this, your last year at Hogwarts, I am confident that you will have other opportunities to do so in the future. Before the term ends, however, there are one or two matters I would like to discuss with you, and time is at a premium. Please come to my office at five o'clock this evening. It will only take a few moments. Once again, congratulations, and I look forward to seeing you at five. Zenobia Hooch."

Cho looked over the letter; her first attempt at forgery. She had to admit that it looked good. She rolled up the parchment, snuck out of the office, ran up to the Owlery, gave an owl the scroll and told the owl to find Cedric Diggory in Hufflepuff House.

Done, she sighed as she watched the owl fly around the castle, looking for the owls' opening to Hufflepuff. Now I wait.

xxx

Cho made sure that she was near Hooch's office at four thirty. She didn't want to miss Cedric. Maybe he suspected something; maybe he'd already met with Madam Hooch and suspected that the letter was a trap. There were so many maybes that she hadn't let herself stop and think about; otherwise, the letter would never have been sent, and she couldn't wait around doing nothing.

At ten minutes until five, Cedric Diggory showed up at Hooch's office door. He had surprised Cho by coming through the forest, alongside the maze, where he wouldn't be seen. Either Cedric was no longer scared of the Forbidden Forest, or something had him even more frightened…

"Ced!"

He turned to face Cho, who came running up to him. His face was smiling, but his eyes had that look of horror she'd seen in the hospital wing the other day.

"Hi." Cedric's hand twitched as if he wanted to reach for Cho but was stopping himself. "Erm, look, do you mind waiting a tic? I'm supposed to see Hooch."

"No, you're not," Cho interrupted him. "I wrote that letter; you're supposed to see me."

"Oh."

"Cedric, I'm sorry about lying to you, but I don't know what's happened to you. At the moment, I don't want to know. I just have one favour to ask of you. I'd like to suggest doing something together that might make you feel more like yourself." To Cho's surprise, Cedric started blushing—deeply. "I meant quidditch!" she laughed. "I know it always helps me feel normal if I'm out of sorts." She pulled a snitch out of the pocket of her robes. "So, are you up for some one-on-one Seeking?"

Cedric seemed to run the suggestion over in his mind, as if looking for some hidden trap. He was never like that. Still, he probably thought that he had nothing to fear from chasing a snitch. "You're on," he smiled. It was the same smile Cho had known up-close for six months, but she couldn't let herself think about that now. She had to be sure.

Cho straddled her Comet; Cedric mounted his broom. Cho threw the snitch straight up; they watched as its wings hummed to life and it flew away.

"Ready, steady, GO!"

For the first time in months, Cho Chang was back in her element, with the wind rushing in her ears, robes flapping, her eyes scanning the area for the snitch while also keeping an eye on Cedric. She'd challenged him in part to see how he would fly; inside of thirty seconds, she had her answer, and the longer their duel for the snitch went on, the more it confirmed her opinion. Still, there was nothing to do now but finish the duel.

In just a few minutes, Cedric blazed past Cho in a powerdive, plucking the snitch out of midair to end the duel.

"Well done!" Cho gushed happily when they reached the ground. "That was a great catch!"

"Yeah, it was a lot of fun," Cedric smiled, running one hand embarrassedly through his flaxen hair. The other hand reached out, offering the Snitch to Cho.

Cho closed one hand around Cedric's wrist. The other hand had pulled her wand; she held the point of it just under Cedric's jaw.

"W--What is this?"

"Get on your knees and clasp your hands behind you."

"What the—"

"I don't want to hurt you, even by accident, and there's no telling what a wand'll do when it's this close."

Cedric did as she asked. "Will you please tell me what's this all about?"

"That's what I want to know. Whoever you are, you're not Cedric Diggory."

"But, but how can you say that?!"

"Because I've watched Cedric Diggory play quidditch. He's a fast Seeker, he's active, he stays close to the pitch and he always chases anything he thinks might possibly be the snitch. Just now, you spent your time high, you saw the snitch and pretended you didn't, and you went into a sudden high-speed dive to get it. As I said, I know how Cedric plays Seeker." There was a pause; when Cho next spoke, there was a catch in her voice. "And I know how Harry Potter plays Seeker."

When Cho said that name, Cedric's spirit seemed to give out. He slumped down, not looking up at Cho, who still had her wand pointed at him. "Nobody's seen Harry Potter since the Tournament four days ago. You had to be the last to see him, whoever you are. Now tell me! What happened?"

"Cho, I--" Cedric started to lift his head to look into Cho's accusing eyes, but he seemed to lose the strength to do even that. "I'm glad you figured it out. It's been getting so hard. I really think I'm going mad."

"What happened?" she repeated.

"You're not going to like what I have to say. I wish I never had to tell you at all, but you've almost guessed it. The fact is, I am Cedric Diggory. And I'm also Harry Potter."

To Cho's credit, she kept her wand pointed steadily at Cedric. But her head was shaking, her eyes wide with fear. "No. That isn't possible."

"For you and me it's impossible. Voldemort did this to me."

At this news, Cho let her wand arm drop. She was too stunned to do more than sink to her knees next to Cedric. "But how? Why? Who are you?"

"We--we touched the Cup together. It turned out to be a Portkey; but nobody knew. It took us to a cemetery where Voldemort came back to life."

"How could he do that?"

"He did something in a cauldron with the hand of one of his Death-Eaters, and a bone from the grave of his father, and--and some of my blood."

Cho lost her grip on her wand. "Then you really are Harry; that giant spider wounded your leg during the Third Task. But why do you look like Cedric?"

"It's all part of his plan. He wanted to buy time to flee the country, to rest up and get used to his new body. He means to start the war all over again. I have to tell Dumbledore!"

"You could have done that days ago; why didn't you?"

"Because--" Cedric started to cry, and hung his head. "Because I was afraid. I thought they'd blame me."

"Blame you because You-Know-Who is back?"

"Blame me because Cedric is dead."

Cho's expression seemed frozen. Actually, she felt panic rising in her; she thought that the universe had become frozen.

"Cho, I'm so sorry you had to find out like this," Cedric kept weeping, unable to look her in the eye. "But when we appeared, the first thing they did was capture us, like they knew we were coming. There wasn't time to defend ourselves."

"But, but You-Know-Who made you look like--"

"It goes deeper than that," Cedric interrupted. "He changed my body into Cedric's but he also kept Cedric's memories and feelings alive and put them in me, just before he--just before he killed Cedric. I've been trying to sort out what's him and what's me, but it keeps getting harder and harder."

"So you know that Cedric, when the Tournament was over, promised to..."

"I know Cedric wanted to kiss you. God, Cho, I wanted to kiss you. I've wanted to ever since the first moment I saw you, when Gryffindor played Ravenclaw last year. But Voldemort was able to get into my mind, and found out how I feel about you. And how Cedric felt about you."

Cho could sense where this revelation was headed and it terrified her, but she had to know. "So you know what Cedric and I ..."

"It's worse." Cedric's voice had dropped to a whisper. "I don't just know what you and Cedric did; I remember."

He was right; this was worse. Knowing that Harry knew, and felt, everything that had gone on between her and Cedric; Cho felt violated somehow. "Harry, please, tell me that you've had one other girlfriend, that you've held someone, kissed someone, even Granger. Please tell me I'm not the first person..." Her voice trailed off.

"I'm sorry, Cho," he finally said. "You were the first girl, the only girl I ever loved. Voldemort saw that, saw how you were someone we both had in common, and used it in his curse. He told me that, if I kissed you, I'd become Cedric only. Harry Potter would be truly gone."

"The only person who ever defeated him," Cho nodded, "and he'd destroy himself by chasing what his heart desired the most. Harry, where is Cedric?"

Cedric shrugged. "Probably still back at the churchyard, if they didn't destroy the body."

"Harry, you -- We can't let you stay like this. I can't be the one to let him have the victory."

"Even if it means you lose Cedric for good?"

"Harry, you--you say Cedric's been dead for four days now. That's it, then. I know that, that..." Cho's composure started to break, but she pulled herself together. "Cedric Diggory's gone, and there's no bringing him back. You're still Harry Potter, but you're also a trap, and I can't let either of us fall in."

They knelt together at the mouth of the maze. Cho never, never wanted anything more in her short life than to throw her arms around Harry-within-Cedric, in what might be her only chance to resolve the conflict that had stewed within her since before the Yule Ball, reconciling the two very different yet equally intense loves of her life... But she refused to allow herself to move. Maybe Voldemort lied about the spell; it didn't seem possible. But the cost of finding out was too high.

It was minutes before she spoke again. "Cedric, I mean, Harry," she began confusedly, "do you think Dumbledore could, you know, sort you out? Take Cedric's spirit and--"

"Release it? Not unless Cedric's body was here. Otherwise, that spirit would be worse off than a ghost."

Cho just looked down at her hands, folded in her lap, and sighed. Maybe he'd just taken away her last hope of saying something to Cedric, without meaning to. When she raised her head a minute later, she looked straight at Harry, and didn't seem to blame him for anything.

"We have to see Dumbledore. Now."

xxx

Despite the hour they went to Dumbledore's office, not even having a plan of what to do if he wasn't there. But he was; it was almost as if he'd been waiting for them.

At one point the Headmaster stopped Harry telling his story to gaze at him through what looked like a pair of opera glasses. Finally he bid them continue their stories. When they were done, Dumbledore looked as grave as they had ever seen him.

"Children, believe it or not, by wantonly toying with you Voldemort has also been toying with me. This is a message about what he intends to do now that he is reborn, and he believes I am incapable of stopping him. He may be right.

"He is dealing in the most foul and debased facet of the Dark Arts; so much so that we do not speak of it at Hogwarts, and we have no mention of it in the library. I will tell you only this: that, while most of our magic involves changing the physical world, Voldemort has set out to change his soul."

Cho shuddered. Only a few weeks ago she'd sat for her O.W.L.s, and her Muggle Studies exam included an essay on Faust and other such bargains involving Muggles and magic. This was turning into a darker atrocity than she ever could have imagined.

"It would be simple enough to restore Harry's body," Dumbledore went on. "But I wish you had come to me sooner; returning Cedric's soul to its proper body becomes harder with each passing moment."

"Excuse me, Headmaster," Cho interrupted, "but is there a chance…"

"Forgive me, Miss Chang, I should have been clearer. Cedric's memories must be returned to his body, even if his body is lifeless and cannot sustain them. They cannot bring his body back to life, especially if he was killed by an Unforgivable curse. If they stayed in Harry's body, they would only interfere with his own memories, and nobody can live two lives sanely. I am very sorry, my dear."

Cho glanced at Harry, who now resembled Cedric. He looked as if he wanted to say something, perhaps to express his own sympathy. But he turned his head away and said nothing.

Dumbledore spoke up again. "Perhaps the only good news to come out of what you have said tonight is that I now know who was responsible for this vile attack. I have to stop the responsible party now, and must first call on some Aurors to back me up. Once that happens, we can sort out Cedric's body and finally put matters right. In the meanwhile, I must ask both of you to wait here in my office. And touch nothing!" He was out the door before either Harry or Cho could reply.

No sooner was Dumbledore out of his office than Harry leapt up and started looking around the Headmaster's very large office, trying every cupboard and door he could find.

"Stop that! What are you doing?!"

"You heard Dumbledore. The longer it takes to bring Cedric's body back, the harder it will be to take his memories out of me and put them back where they belong. And I can't just sit here doing nothing!"

"Harry, please, don't. Don't look for, well, what I think you're looking for."

"Cho, I have to!"

"But you don't even know if it still works!"

At that moment, Harry tried a door to an anteroom; it was unlocked. He went inside. When he didn't come out again in a few seconds, Cho ran to the door. She saw Cedric Diggory standing before the Triwizard Cup. Harry disguised as Cedric was going to seize the cup, which could take him back to the cemetery where Cedric's real body might still be. But Voldemort might still be there, too. All Cho knew was that the two boys she most cared about had touched that cup four days ago, and one of them was dead. Now the other one—

"NO!"

Cedric was reaching for the Cup. Cho threw herself into the room, leaping to get Cedric to stop. However, in the instant she grabbed Cedric's shoulders from behind, Cedric touched the Cup.

Cedric and Cho and the Cup vanished.

xxx

continued in part 5: 28 June, 1995


	5. Chapter 5

Cho Chang and the Goblet of Fire: An Alternate Fanfic

By monkeymouse

Based on writings by JK Rowling

Part Five: 28 June, 1995

xxx

The Little Hangleton churchyard at midnight was a jumble of tombstones and crypts that seemed to have grown unplanned, almost organically, over time. During the day it may have looked sensible, even quaint, but now, hoping to rescue a corpse from the Dark Lord, it looked to Cho and Cedric/Harry as ominous as the darkest cobwebbed corridor or dungeon in Hogwarts.

Harry went there with the idea of finding Cedric's real body to return it to Dumbledore as soon as he could. He'd grabbed the Tri-Wizard Cup, not knowing whether the Portkey even had a return trip left in it, nor where to look in the churchyard. It hadn't occurred to him that Cho would come along; probably hadn't occurred to her, either, but here she was.

Cho couldn't help but whisper, as if she was afraid of being overheard. "You were here before. Do you have any idea where Cedric is?"

"This place isn't that big," Harry said defensively. "He should be easy to find."

In other words, Cho thought, you haven't a clue.

A flash of green light exploded at their feet. Harry dove behind one crypt, Cho behind another. Somebody was trying to Hex them.

"All right, next question," Cho called out. "Did you have any idea in your head at all? You were just going to Port in here, find Cedric lying about in the open, grab the Cup again, and get back home? Just like dashing to the corner store?"

"You heard Dumbledore! I should have done this days ago!"

"Still, you couldn't have taken one extra minute to think about this? You couldn't have taken another minute to tell me about it?"

"What are you mad at me for?"

Another Hex exploded on the ground near Harry's feet. Cho yelled, with a passion in her voice that surprised even her, "Because this isn't Quidditch and that wasn't a Bludger! For God's sake, Harry, I just lost Cedric; how can I lose you too?"

"You're not going to, not tonight. Those Hexes never came close. He's toying with us."

"Who is?"

Another Hex exploded, this one near Cho's feet.

"No names," said a voice. Harry and Cho carefully looked out from behind their tomb shields and saw a robed figure standing atop another tomb, lazily waving a wand back and forth, as if trying to decide which one to Hex first.

"Why shouldn't I use your name?" Harry shouted at the figure. "It's not as if anybody would believe me." Harry paused a minute. "Cho, that's a Death Eater named Peter Pettigrew."

"Harry, are you certain?"

"I can see why you don't believe me."

"It's not about you. I just took my O.W.L.s a few weeks ago, and the Muggle Studies section referred to Pettigrew and a group of Muggles being killed by Sirius Black."

"Yeh, well, sorry to disappoint, but that's a load of toss. Pettigrew killed the Muggles, then faked his own death."

"But why?"

"Harry," Pettigrew's voice drifted over the tombstones, "if you're going to give all our secrets away, I'm afraid we'll have to put your death on the pile."

"Shut up! She needs to hear the truth!"

"The truth is that her beloved Cedric Diggory fell off his broom onto his head and is talking rubbish."

"Pettigrew's a Death Eater, then and now. He got Sirius Black put into Azkaban because Sirius was friends with James and Lily Potter; he was my godfather. Voldemort could never have killed my parents if Sirius was around."

There was a long silence, interrupted by night-jars and a distant owl. "Harry," Cho suddenly spoke up, "why doesn't anyone else know all this?"

"Mainly because the Ministry doesn't like to look foolish."

"Oh, there's a winning argument," Pettigrew sneered.

"Actually," Cho interrupted, "that's the most convincing argument he's made all night."

The next Hex hit the ground near Cho's feet.

"What are you still doing here, anyway?" Harry shouted.

"If you must know, I'm waiting to hear from Hogwarts. The Dark Lord has had an agent there for many months, arranging for the rebirth of his body through you, Harry. You should feel honored."

"Yeh, it's the highlight of my year so far."

Harry waited a minute until Cho was looking at him again. He put a finger to his lips, then tried to tell her through gestures that he was going to try to sneak around to his right. He got only partway to his goal when Pettigrew let off a fresh string of Hexes; this time, he was meaning to hit Harry, who ended up being pinned down behind a crypt with a statue of a childlike angel on top.

Cho saw Harry was trapped, and that Pettigrew had his back to her. She came out of her hiding place and leveled her wand at his back—and then froze. She couldn't bring herself to Hex him.

"STUN HIM!"

Harry's yelling didn't help Cho, except to alert Peter to turn and try to Hex her again. She ducked, letting the tomb take the hit. Then she rose again, wand at the ready: "CONFUNDUS!"

Unfortunately, the Hex missed the mark entirely, sailing past both Peter and Harry. "You disappoint me, Harry," Peter sneered. "Even if it's a small battle, you should bring a fighter and not a friend."

"I trust," said a welcome voice, "that some of us can be both."

Dumbledore had shown up at last, throwing Pettigrew off-balance with a string of well-aimed Hexes. Finding himself surrounded on three sides, Pettigrew turned into a rat and dove through a clear space ahead.

That was when the Grim attacked.

Dumbledore wasn't the only one to sneak up on the Little Hangleton churchyard unnoticed. Sirius Black had taken him there in his motorcycle, parking it half a mile away and covering the rest of the way on foot. Sirius had taken his dog shape in case Pettigrew had tried to escape as a rat. This time, the black dog held one of the rat's forelegs in his mouth. He tried to turn back into a human, but the dog hung on.

"In case you were wondering, Harry, we almost took Buckbeak, but Sirius said that night flying still makes him rather fidgety. As for your coming back here, I'm sure you thought you were brilliant, but you neglected to tell us what we were supposed to use for a Portkey if we needed to follow you; which, it seems, we did. Good evening, Miss Chang; this must be rather a strange night for you."

"Strange indeed," Peter muttered, warily eyeing the dog that still had a tight grip on his elbow. "Watching Dumbledore arrive in the company of a fugitive wizard, while fighting a dead one."

"But only one of you deserves your fate," Cho said, keeping her voice as steady as she could. "You killed Cedric, didn't you?"

Peter gave Cho a vicious look but didn't say anything. Dumbledore stepped forward, his wand-tip now touching Peter's chest. "I have a message for you to give to your master: tell him the spy has been caught, and all he's really accomplished is the murder of the son of a Pureblood family. He may have returned to his body after all these years, but he may find the price steeper than expected."

"Seems like old times. Last year you threatened to send me to Azkaban. Is that still your plan?"

"No, you'll find that I can bend things a bit, but only slightly. Tell us where Mister Diggory is, and you'll be free to deliver the message. Any treachery or double-dealing, though, and I cannot be responsible for what happens."

Peter said nothing.

"Persuade him, Padfoot."

The dog's jaws closed tighter and tighter on Pettigrew's arm. Even in the darkness they could see the blood seeping through Peter's sleeve. Dumbledore simply stood there, impassive, his wand trained on Peter Pettigrew.

It was hard to say whether pain or panic got the better of him, but, after another minute, Peter yelled, "He's with the sailor!" As he said this, he scratched the dog's muzzle, making him loosen his grip. Peter turned again into a rat, and disappeared in the unkempt high grass.

"Well, what now?" Sirius asked, wiping his nose with his sleeve.

"We came to find Mister Diggory, and I think Pettigrew just told us where to look."

"But who, or what, is the sailor? What does it mean?"

"I think we can assume that Pettigrew didn't just shout out words at random in hopes of being released. Sailor means something specific. Does anyone know what?"

"Erm, Headmaster?" Cho raised her voice slightly. "Cedric did say one time that there were only a handful of interesting people buried here, and it was mostly the local families."

"That may simplify things a bit. Look for someone who isn't supposed to be here; someone connected with the sea. And I think we can save even more time by looking at the above-ground tombs. I hardly think they'd risk being caught by digging a fresh grave, or opening an old one."

The four went off in different directions. Harry/Cedric wanted to go with Cho, but they were looking for the real body of Cedric Diggory, and Harry wasn't sure he wanted to be with Cho when it was found. He wandered among the burial vaults and headstones of the churchyard, not really looking at anything, hoping that someone else would find something.

"Hey! I think this is it!"

Sirius called to the others from a weather-beaten stone crypt that, by the date, was more than a hundred years old. Dumbledore read the inscription:

"Here lies a son of the sea, a Norseman known to us only as Kehaar, who came to Ottery St. Catchpole in 1857, lived his remaining days here, and died on 25 July 1876. He spoke very little, but our world was broadened by his arriving and saddened by his leaving." Dumbledore shifted the stone cover of the tomb. There were two bodies within; one had become only a few bones; Dumbledore Levitated the other body out and onto the grass.

It was Cedric, still dressed in the robes he wore for the Tri-Wizard Tournament. The skin of his face seemed to be slightly blue; his eyes were closed and seemed a little sunken. There could be no doubt; he was dead.

Cho knelt beside his head. She briefly touched the cold flesh of his face, then drew back her hand. She closed her eyes, as if that would stop the tears gathering there, but they started down her face. She let out a sobbing moan that must have carried half a mile in the night air. She held herself with her arms, as if trying to keep her own body from flying apart, rocking in place, still sobbing.

Harry couldn't take anymore and walked a few feet away, turning his back so that at least he wouldn't see Cho, or she couldn't see him. He now felt he was no longer Cho's last hope that Cedric was alive, but instead was a reminder that he was gone, gone forever. After a minute he sensed someone else beside him, and felt a heavy hand on his shoulder.

It was Sirius. "Almost over now, Harry."

"I wish it was over. It should be me there dead, not Cedric."

"Don't let Albus ever hear you say that, Harry, or me, for that matter. You've no idea how many people have given their all to keep you alive."

"Doesn't matter to her," Harry said, turning to look at Cho who was still wailing over Cedric. "I never wanted people to die for me. I'd rather people mourned for me than died for me. I, well, part of me knows she's mourning for Cedric, and I should too. But part of me wonders if she'd ever feel like that about me."

Sirius looked at Harry, his eyebrows raised. "She already does, Harry my lad; you just don't know it yet. And it has nothing to do with looking like Cedric."

Just then, Dumbledore called to the others. "It's time we got back to Hogwarts. Harry, Miss Chang, take hold of my sleeves, and I'll grasp the Cup. Sirius, would you be so kind as to place Mister Diggory in your sidecar and transport him to Hogwarts? Wait near the hospital wing."

They prepared for what would be a rough ride back to the mouth of the maze. "Miss Chang, I think that you should go to Ravenclaw, and get what little sleep you can. I'm sure it will be a temptation, but tell no one where you've been or what you've done this night. Anyone who complains that you're out of your dorm, refer them to my office. Once I sort out Mister Diggory's memories, I will let the school know what's happened. Harry, I will still need you for a few minutes to accomplish that. When you've been restored to yourself, I recommend that you spend the next couple of nights in the hospital wing. Meanwhile," and here Dumbledore's look darkened and gave way to the sadness he'd tried not to feel yet, "I must make one of the most difficult Floo calls of my life, to Amos and Celia Diggory." Harry still didn't dare look at Cho. They vanished as they'd arrived, leaving the abandoned churchyard at Little Hangleton to be lit by the just-rising sun.

xxx

To be concluded in part 6: 29 June to 1 July, 1995

A/N: The reference to Kehaar should be a hint to another one of my favorite pieces of modern British literature.


	6. Chapter 6

Cho Chang and the Goblet of Fire: An Alternate Fanfic

By monkeymouse

Based on writings by JK Rowling

Part Six: 29 June to 1 July, 1995

xxx

The three returned to Dumbledore's office at Hogwarts, where the Cup had last been. Harry, still in the body of Cedric Diggory, turned away from Cho. He couldn't bring himself to look at her, and didn't want her to look at him. Not now; not until he had been restored to his own body. He barely heard her whisper, "Thank you, Headmaster." Then, in an even softer whisper: "Harry?" He didn't move; he didn't dare. He didn't think he could handle how she would look at him, or what she might think. After a second, he heard the sound of her trainers on the stone floor, and down the steps leaving the office.

After a minute Dumbledore spoke. "I think she's had enough of a head start. It's time for us now."

Harry didn't have to ask. He followed a step behind Dumbledore to the hospital wing. At the far end of the room he saw a body covered with a sheet lying on one of the beds. Standing next to the bed was a man Harry guessed was Sirius. He wasn't sure, because the man wore a harlequin mask, with an overly long nose, cheekbones sticking up like mountains, and a very thin moustache painted onto the papier-mâché.

"I feel like a fool with this on," he told Harry and Dumbledore, "but I didn't know Pomfrey would be up and about. Couldn't have her telling the Ministry about me, and I doubt she'd let a dog run loose in the wing. Anyway, it was the best I could do on short notice."

"It suits you, old friend," Dumbledore smiled. "Your humour used to cause me as many problems as James' athletic overconfidence." Harry's ears pricked up at the mention of his father. "But there's a time and place to reminisce.

"Lie down on the bed, Harry."

Harry did as Dumbledore asked. "I should let you know right now that you need to be put into a very deep sleep to separate you and Cedric, and no potion can be effective enough. I'll have to cast a spell to accomplish this. You should sleep until after sunset, by which time, if all goes well, you'll be yourself again."  
"Hold up, Albus," Sirius interrupted. "I expect I know the answer to this one already, but, I mean, the question has to be asked, doesn't it?"

"Point taken," Dumbledore said to Sirius; he then turned to Harry. "Harry, it seems that your godfather, who still can't help but cause a bit of mischief, has asked me indirectly to ask you a question. It is this: do you really want to go through with this? You could stay as you are now, and become the only son of a good and true Pureblood wizarding family. Like the Weasleys, the Diggorys have made the right choices in their lives. Like you, Cedric was a Seeker, although he was Sorted into a House that did not always give full scope to his talents. You, on the other hand, have nowhere to go this summer except back to Muggle relatives who would be delighted to see the back of you. I know that I'm presenting a one-sided view of things, but you must consider both sides to make your choice."

Harry pondered the problem for only a few seconds. "I never really knew my parents," Harry said softly, "and the Diggorys may be nice people, but I couldn't do that to Cedric's family, or to my own. I couldn't pretend to be who they'd want me to be. It isn't right. Besides, Voldemort tried to make me want to be Cedric, just to get me out of his way."

Sirius gave a kind of barking laugh. "He got you there."

"I fully expected he would. Close your eyes, Harry; it's time."

Harry as he felt himself slipping into unconsciousness tried to hang onto only one memory of Cedric's: the memory of Cedric's first kiss with Cho, on Christmas night at the end of the Yule Ball. Harry realized one thing: as many times as he's seen Cho in passing, and she smiled at him, at that moment Cho wasn't smiling at Cedric. He didn't understand why she looked that way: so serious, as if she was taking the biggest step of her life…

He woke up hours later, long after the sun had set, and alone in the dark ward tried to recall anything to do with Cedric and Cho; he finally had to concede that he could not. Only then did he try to recall the Cho-Cedric kiss; ultimately, it was all jumbled and confused. He didn't know if he recalled what happened or was fantasizing about it. But, once he realized he'd lost Cedric's memories, Harry felt somehow empty.

xxx

Ron and the twins come down early in the morning of 30 June, asking Harry to bring them up to speed about what happened with Voldemort while telling Harry what's been happening in Hogwarts and the wizarding world. They told him about the son of Barty Crouch posing as Alastor Moody for an entire year. "Mum didn't want you to know anything and get all upset, but dad was easy to get the news from." Dumbledore had announced to the school the night before that Cedric was dead and that Harry won the Tournament. They also talked about Crouch getting a Dementor's Kiss, with Harry wondering whether it was deliberate to protect the reputation of some wizard (or of the Ministry itself). Dumbledore had spent most of the previous night closeted with Molly and Arthur Weasley, who were going to be rounding up some old friends from the days when Harry was still an infant. They were hooking up with Dumbledore to carry out some sort of rear-guard action against Voldemort. Finally, Harry got the Tournament prize money from Ron, decided that he had no use for it, and gave it to Fred & George.

Cho still hadn't come to see him.

xxx

The next morning, Ron and Hermione came by to visit Harry; Hagrid came along a little later with some "sweeties" left over from tea with Madame Maxim. The cookies Hagrid had tried to make smelled of sugar and cocoa, and were decidedly underdone, but Harry had eaten precious little since the Third Task.

Cho came by just before supper. It had only been two days since he'd seen her last, but somehow she seemed even prettier than before. She didn't say a word at first, but sat on the bed next to Harry's. Both were rather hesitant to talk; Cedric was still between them, and Cho was close to tears but fighting them back.

Harry wanted to talk about the two of them: what they had started to become before the Yule Ball, and what they might have become but for Cedric. Unfortunately, Harry had never had this kind of conversation in his life, and groped for words. After a minute, Cho took pity on him, touched that such a masterful Seeker would be at a loss for words for her sake. "Sorry, Harry, but it's still too soon. Maybe after the summer, when it isn't such a…"

"Bad time?" Cho nodded. "Cho, I'm sorry, but you have to tell me if you know. Why? Why did this have to happen? I mean, it's all my fault, isn't it? I told him to take the Cup along with me. Why would he listen to me about something like that?"

"Harry, I—" Cho couldn't finish what she'd started to say, and had to take a minute. "Believe it or not, Harry, I've felt exactly the way you do. Ever since you told me Cedric was dead, I wondered why, and all I could think was that it was my fault."

"No; how was it your…"

"Think about it, Harry. Why would a Hufflepuff share the kind of once-in-a-lifetime glory that could have been his alone? I didn't know what the Third Task would be, but I knew that you two were tied going into the task. So I told Cedric what I'd been telling him for months: that the two of you should be friends. I hated those Slytherin badges that set you two against each other, and he understood that. He hated the dueling Houses as much as I did. So Cedric tried to seek you out, didn't he?"

Harry remembered Cedric's hints about the golden egg and nodded.

"Yes, well." Cho fell silent for another minute. Harry didn't know why, but Cho seemed to still have something to say about it, and was herself struggling to find the words. "Cedric was the way he was because he was good and decent. My motives, well, I'm afraid they weren't so lofty. I'd finally gotten to know you this year, even if we haven't chatted much before this. And then there was the, erm, there was Cedric. And I never wanted that to happen, Harry, you have to believe me."

"You didn't want Cedric to die?"

"I didn't want to fall in love with him. I felt like you were avoiding me after the Yule Ball, and that wasn't the way I wanted it. Because I li—" Cho, who'd been running on almost without a breath, suddenly came to a full stop. "I think maybe I've said too much."

"Cho, did you really talk to Cedric about taking the Cup with me?"

"Well, no; how could anybody have known how the task would end? I just asked him if he could see a way to end it with Hogwarts winning rather than either of you losing. You didn't deserve that, either of you."

Harry looked down at his hands clutching his blanket. They suddenly looked to be the wrong size, as if they belonged to somebody else. He glanced over at Cho's hands, clutching each other in her lap; they looked perfect. He glanced up at her face; she was looking down at her lap, then suddenly glanced into Harry's eyes. He hurriedly looked away.

Harry swallowed, for his throat had suddenly gone dry. "So," Harry said after a minute, "you think we wanted the same thing?"

Cho nodded slightly. "Not for it to have ended like this, of course. Harry, please, don't ever apologise to me about Cedric. You did nothing to be sorry for. It was the Dark Lord's doing, not yours."

"I know," Harry said, barely above a whisper, feeling his voice would crack any moment. "But I think I know how you feel, and if I could I'd—"

"I know," Cho said softly. "Thank you."

They stayed silently sitting for another minute. "Cho, I, well, I can't remember any of it anymore, about Cedric. I'd like, I mean, if it's possible after all this, if we can still be friends…"

Cho reached over to his bed to take his hand. "We already are," she smiled rather weakly, tears already staring down her cheeks, "and I think we always will be." Her voice breaks. "I'm sorry, Harry, I …" With that, she ran from the wing.

A few minutes later, Ron comes down carrying a set of Harry's school robes. He was there to make sure Harry went to Cedric's memorial dinner. Harry had heard Ron's steps in the corridor, and made sure to use the blanket to wipe away his own tears.

xxx

A/N: Please watch for my return to long-form Canon-compliant fanfic with "Cho Chang's Eighth Year". What happened after the death of Dumbledore? Did she ever sit for her NEWTs? What did Cho do during the war, and what about her parents? New experiences, old guests, Chinese magic, and two epilogues.


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